Freudian Theory in a Zombie Apocalypse
by DanniV
Summary: A paper I wrote for class explaining the behavior of Shane in the Walking Dead based on Freudian Theory.


**The Walking Dead's Shane Walsh **

**Freudian Theory During a Zombie Apocalypse:**

The Walking Dead is a television drama about a group of people who have banded together outside the city of Atlanta after a Zombie Apocalypse. They must avoid being infected or killed by the zombies that are currently populating the world. All governing bodies have ceased to exist. All imposed social structure, other than what is self-imposed by the small group is gone. The Atlanta group begins the show with approximately twenty people hiding in the mountains near the zombie ridden city center. Occasionally, members of the group go into the city for supplies. In the series premiere, their leader is Shane Walsh.

Shane seems to be a good guy. He is a police officer. He has taken his best friend's (Rick Grimes, who everyone believes is dead) wife, Lori Grimes, and child, Carl Grimes, under his protection, adopting them as his own. As leader, he tries to make decisions that benefit the group. Even in this horrible time, Shane is portrayed as fair and loving. He does not always make the right decisions, but they are seen to be made with the right intentions. Shane also has a soft side when it comes to Carl. He teaches him to tie knots, how to fish, and helps to make Carl laugh by splashing around in the lake under the pretense of searching for frogs, "You and me, we'll be heroes. We'll feed these folks Cajun-style Kermit legs" (1.3). At this point in the story, societal norms still rule. It has only been a few months since the zombie outbreak obliterated society. Shane's Ego is still required to follow the desires of the Superego in order to stay out of trouble. While there are zombies everywhere and death seems inevitable, Shane has it pretty good. He has a pseudo-wife and son. He is the boss for the first time in his life. People look to him as a leader. He is positioned in a role he always wanted in life.

Based upon the television series, Freud would say that Shane had a brief fixation in the Phallic Stage growing up. Little is said about Shane's home life other than that he was a prankster and acted out a lot. He reminisces once about stealing his high school principal's car for a joyride. Shane also paints himself as a ladies man as he brags to Rick, who he has been friends with since at least high school; "Prodigy? What you call a high school stud banging thirty-year olds on the regular?" (2.5). He is a self proclaimed womanizer. Regardless to the involvement of his parents in his life; this allows us to conclude that Shane never identified with his father morally. This lack of moral identification with his father never allowed Shane to overcome his Oedipus complex in his home environment. Shane feared castration from his father if he acted upon his sexual desires for his mother. But unlike normal children, he could not find vicarious sexual satisfaction from his mother's relationship with his father. Instead he acted out by having casual sex and transferring his feelings on to "easy" women who did not pose the risk of castration from his father. This prevented him from forming a properly functioning Superego at this point in his life.

However, Rick and Lori became strong moral surrogates in the place of Shane's parents. Shane followed Rick into police-work after high school and they became partners. Rick got married and Shane grew even closer to Rick's family, but never started one of his own. This leads Shane to transfer his sexual feelings for his mother to a surrogate mother figure, Lori. Lori is beautiful, kind, and loving. She welcomes Rick's prankster friend into her heart and home. She provides the comfort of a mother and Shane is drawn to this comfort. Shane then begins to fear castration from Rick because Rick is an opponent for Lori's love. Rick was the guy who made good. He got a job, married, and had a child. Shane cannot compete for Lori's love, for fear of castration from Rick, so he identifies morally with Rick to receive vicarious satisfaction from Lori's love for Rick. Shane is welcomed into their family as a friend and surrogate uncle for Carl. At work Rick is Shane's superior and shows him how to behave. At home, Shane clings to their family to feel involved and a part of a family unit since he does not have one of his own. Through these attachments, Shane is able to form a functioning Superego since he identifies morally with Rick, who represents a moral center throughout the entire show.

Shane is a very Id driven creature. His Eros; the life instinct for sex, hunger, thirst and comfort is very strong. He is very self-centered. He loves quick and easy pleasure with women and "fun" regardless of social norms. This is clear by the previously mentioned descriptions of his past. Shane also likes being in power and being an alpha-male. He seeks to be popular in high school both with the ladies and with the school population as a whole. As an alpha-male, Shane can easily satisfy his Eros libido or life instinct energy. He also has a very strong Thanatos; or death instinct. Shane is aggressive and quick to anger. He engages in either a physical or verbal fight with each member of the Atlanta survivor group at least once, including the children, even though it is in his best interest for everyone to like him.

However, in the confines of a functioning society, Shane could not always give into his Id desires in their purest form because he would be punished by society. Based upon his behavior during his teen years, it is clear that Shane's Ego did not always identify the best match to satisfy his Id desires and keep him copasetic with society because he got into trouble a lot while he was in school. However, as Shane forms his Superego with the help of Rick as a moral center, the Superego helps guide the Ego in its reality testing to find appropriate ways to fulfill Shane's Id. During this reality testing phase, the Superego causes a lot of neurotic and moral anxiety for Shane in response to these previously acceptable outlets for his Id impulses.

To alleviate these anxieties, the Superego and the Ego work together and Shane joins the high school football team to displace his aggression into a socially acceptable pastime. After graduation, Shane displaces his Eros desires to feel important and in power and his Thanatos desires for aggression by joining the police force. This sublimation of his Id desires allows him to positively use these urges for the betterment of society. These Ego-defense mechanisms allow Shane to progress out of the Phallic Stage, through the Latency Stage and finally into the Genital Stage. Within the confines of a functioning society, Shane may be a little goofy and rough around the edges, but he is still an upstanding and functioning member of society.

However after the Zombie Apocalypse, society is no longer functioning and providing the structure it once did for Shane. The Walking Dead universe is an intense place to live. The characters are not worrying about money, or speeding tickets, or going to jail. They are worried about zombies killing and/or turning them or their families into zombies. They are broken down to their most basic instincts and desires. Their Eros and Thanatos are fighting for dominance. They need to eat, drink, and sometimes have sex. The characters of Walking Dead are trying to survive. Yet at the same time their Thanatos is whispering, "Wouldn't it be easier if we just gave up?" They make risky decisions, sometimes out of desperation to survive but also out of aggression and anger.

Everything these people once knew is gone. Shane even believes that Rick, his best friend and moral center, is dead. The entire group is dealing with almost unbearable levels of stress. To cope with this stress, Shane regresses back to the Phallic Stage as a coping mechanism. He needs the comfort of a mother. Since he does not have his mother, he again turns to his surrogate mother figure, Lori. Shane's sexual desires for Lori resurface in this scenario. Now that Rick is gone and castration is not an issue, Shane acts on his desires to sexually possess Lori. She happily returns his advances.

However, with his regression back to the Phallic Stage, Shane sees the threat of symbolic castration at every turn. Shane uses his position of authority as a Sheriff's Deputy to take leadership of the group. He feels entitled to be in power because of the power society gave him. Any attempt to subvert Shane's control over the group is seen as an attempt to castrate him or to take away his current alpha-male status. As such, Shane meets these challenges with much hostility. This is clear when Shane gets into a fist fight with Ed Peletier, a member of the Atlanta group, because Ed hits his wife, Carol Peletier. Shane sees himself as the protector and leader of the group. Any harm to the group is a personal failure. When Ed hits Carol, Shane nearly kills Ed. He warns Ed that if he ever hurts Carol again, Shane will kill him. When Ed acted out, Shane felt the need to restore the balance of power in the camp or risk symbolic castration.

Shane also clings to his authority title because it allows him a proper outlet for his anxiety over his Id impulses. Because he uses this power as a way to control his darker impulses, Shane's Superego desires to hold on to this authority because any question of Shane's authority is a blow to his shaky Ego defense mechanisms. After Shane regains control, he rationalizes that his aggression was part of his duty to protect the group, "I was just trying to keep everybody safe" (2.8). As such, he eases his feelings of castration anxiety by beating up Ed. Shane keeps his Ego-defense mechanisms functioning to protect him from feeling anxiety after the fight by rationalizing that it was to keep Carol safe. Even without acting out his aggression on humans through the "proper channel" of his authority, every time Shane kills a zombie he is displacing his pent-up aggression via a socially acceptable pastime.

However, as the series progresses, societal norms start to become luxuries of the past. When the scavenging party that was sent into the city for supplies gets pinned down by zombies, the group wants to do the morally right thing and send a rescue party. However as the leader of the group, Shane decides this is the wrong plan, "We are surviving here. We are day to day" (1.1). He goes on to rationalize that he cannot put any more of the group at risk by going after the probably already dead group in the city. He reasons with the group, saying that by sending a rescue party, they decrease the number of people at base camp to protect the camp if zombies attack. A rescue party would also put those he sends into the city at risk because they could be attacked by zombies while they try to save their pinned down comrades.

While he is able to rationalize his decision to keep people in camp, it is clearly very selfishly based. Shane's Eros does not want to go into the city and risk dying. Nor does it want Shane to put his family unit, Lori and Carl, at risk since they provide him sexual and emotional comfort. Lori is now his mate and Carl is his offspring. He must protect them at all cost because they make him feel good. If people peel off from the quickly depleting group, there are less people at the camp to help Shane protect himself, Lori, and Carl. Shane's Eros instincts find this risk unacceptable. Besides, Shane's Ego intellectualizes, the people in the city are as good as dead, there is no use risking more people for dead men. Shane chooses personal survival odds over what social morality tells the group they should do. Slowly Shane is pulling away from society. However he is not totally free of its pulls yet because Shane's Ego still requires rationalization and intellectualization to get his super Ego on board with the desires of the Id without causing too much anxiety.

When Rick is discovered in the city center by the supply scavenging party that Shane wrote off as dead men, Rick's reappearance throws Shane's life totally off kilter. He was living the good life with Lori and Carl. They all believed Rick was dead because Shane told them Rick was dead. Now Rick comes back. Shane should be ecstatic. His best friend and father figure is alive. Shane should be excited and he knows it. On the surface he tries to convince himself that he is happy about Rick's return. But by gaining back the friendship of Rick, Shane loses his family that provides so much comfort to him. Not only does he lose the sexual favors of Lori, he loses her respect. She decides that Shane lied to her and left Rick for dead because Shane wanted to be with her, "You are the one that told me that he died"... "From now on my family is off limits to you" (1.3). She resents the lie but mostly she is confused by her own anxiety over cheating on Rick and projects her anxiety on to Shane, blaming him for everything.

Rick's return is a swift and dramatic symbolic castration for Shane. Rick's presence not only deprives Shane of Lori and Carl but it also marks the end of Shane's authority over the Atlanta group. Rick is a natural born leader and the group clings to him as a moral compass in the void left by Shane's more and more often Id based decisions. Even Shane clings to Rick when he comes back, hiding behind Reaction Formation. By assuming an opinion that is a polar opposite of what he currently believes, Shane tries to go back to how things were before the zombies attacked when Rick and he were friends. This was a time when Shane looked to Rick as a guide to live his life. Shane agrees to plans he normally would not like because Rick suggests them. An example is when Rick decides the attempted rescue of a man they left behind in the city when they ran from the zombies. If Rick was not there, Shane would never have allowed the group to do this as he had shown previously with the supply party. But, Shane throws his weight behind Rick to show he is happy Rick is back, when really nothing could be further from the truth.

Shane can only lie to himself for so long before his mental libido is sent into chaos. This mask is clearly slipping as Dale accuses Shane of wanting Rick dead, "You think I'd shoot Rick? That is my best friend. That is a man that I love. I love him like he's my brother. You think that's the kind of man I am?" (1.3). This is exactly the type of man Shane is. Rick has castrated Shane, taken away the comforts needed by Shane's Eros instincts, taken away his socially acceptable outlet for his aggression as group leader, and taken away his Ego-defense mechanism protecting him from his moral anxieties. Rick's return is the beginning of the end of Shane's sanity and ability to function in normal society.

While the rescue party was in the city, there was a zombie attack on the base camp. Shane quickly blamed Rick for the attack and for the people that they lost even though Shane agreed to the plan. Since Rick and part of the group was in the city, when the zombies attacked, Shane was left several men down to protect the camp. People died and Shane blamed Rick. Shane rationalized that if Rick had not let his conscious get in the way and had stayed at camp instead of going into the city, they would not have lost those who were now dead. This is an attempt by Shane to ease the pains of his symbolic castration and regain favor with the group by showing that their new leader made the wrong decision. From this point on, Shane does everything he can to undermine Rick's authority and tries to convince the group that they are better off without Rick. Shane even tries to undermine the good decisions Rick makes with doubt.

After the zombie attack, the group decides to venture out to the Center of Disease Control (CDC), a research lab that was working on a cure for the zombie infection. The CDC is a beacon of hope for the group and they banded together to make the long car trip to the CDC. Once they arrive and meet the sole surviving scientist, Doctor Jenner, they are overcome by the luxury of the CDC. They are in a heavily fortified and zombie-proof enclosure. They have a roof over their heads; they have hot showers, a generous supply of food, and alcohol. The Atlanta group laughs and plays games, enjoying their first taste of security since the Zombie Apocalypse began.

Shane drinks too much and corners Lori in an attempt to apologize for the hard feelings between them. He wants to ease his moral anxiety over cheating with Lori and regain some of his masculinity that he lost when he was symbolically castrated by Rick's return. He wants her to love him and wants to be a part of Carl's life. They are his only family. He can see his actions have caused friction and tries to alleviate his moral anxiety over causing them pain by acquiring Lori's forgiveness. The conversation seems to be a good thing for both of them as they express their feelings about their time together when they thought Rick was dead. However, Lori admits she had feelings for Shane. In his extremely intoxicated state, Shane sees this as hope they may get back together and tries to force himself on Lori. Shane's Id impulses for sexual and emotional comfort force the Ego to jump into action and his Superego is too drunk to stop him. He wants to take comfort and give her comfort in that moment. During the altercation Shane even screams at Lori, "I'm a better father than Rick," (1.6) rationalizing that his actions are okay because he is the better choice for Lori and Carl's protector. He asks her if Rick makes her feel the way he does as he tries to pleasure her. He believed if he could just show her how much pleasure he could give her, that he was a better lover than Rick, she would come back to him. However, these advances are undesired by Lori and they struggle. The scene ends with Lori leaving a giant gash on Shane's neck with her nails making it clear she neither believes Shane is a better husband nor father figure. This rejection is a devastating symbolic castration for Shane.

At breakfast the next morning, the Atlanta group discovers there is no cure. There are no secret government communications between cities let alone countries. They are on their own. The first season ends with the CDC self-destructing and the Atlanta group again facing the uncertainty of life during a Zombie Apocalypse.

Season Two opens exactly where Season One left off; in front of the destroyed CDC. The Atlanta group decides to continue in search of other humans. However, Sophia, the daughter of Carol becomes lost during a Zombie attack and they must find her. After the events at the CDC, Shane decides it is best if he leaves the group. However, he agrees to stay until they find Sophia. While searching for Sophia, Carl is shot and the group is taken in by Hershel Greene and family on their farm. Carl needs surgery. Hershel is a veterinarian and says he can operate but he needs supplies. Shane and Otis, the man who accidently shot Carl while hunting for deer, volunteer to go to a nearby high school to raid the science department for the supplies needed to do the surgery.

While at the school, Shane and Otis are cornered when they are attacked by zombies. They are forced to make a run for the car. Shane injured his ankle while escaping and his Ego realizes that if he had any hope of surviving, Otis would have to be sacrificed to slow the zombies. In a split second decision, Shane uses the last bullet in the gun to shoot Otis in the knee leaving him for dead. Shane escapes with the medical supplies and drives back to the farm as the zombies feed on Otis. Hershel operates and Carl survives his injuries. At a memorial service for Otis, Shane lies to the group and conjures up a heroic tale of Otis saying, "We gotta save the boy," and intentionally putting himself in harm's way for the greater good.

This is the first human to be killed by the group and this takes a serious toll on Shane. Shane even comments to Andrea, a woman in their group, about hypothetically killing people, "There is nothing easy about taking a man's life no matter how little value it may have. But when you get it done, you have to forget it. I guess I haven't quite got that last part down" (2.4). Shane knows what he did is wrong and the moral anxiety he feels is eating him up inside. His Ego is working on overdrive to rationalize his behavior and ease the anxiety eating at him. Shane tells himself and later tells the others, if he had not killed Otis, Carl would have died because the medical supplies would not have arrived. He even claims he is a better father than Rick because he did whatever it took to save Carl, regardless of the moral implications. Shane argues that Rick would not have shot Otis and therefore would have let his son die because his morals were too strong. Killing Otis is the point of no return for Shane. Once he has taken one human life he knows that he wants to kill Rick. Shane's Ego believes that if Rick is removed from the picture, Lori will come back to him, Carl will love him and everything will be right with the world. Shane's Id desperately wants the comforts of his life in the first few episodes when he had a family to call his own. It seems he will stop at nothing to get it.

In this "survival first, morals later" world, the Superego that Shane formed for himself in the structured "moral" society is almost silent. Dale, an older male character sees this Id based side of Shane thriving in the zombie world and accuses him of killing Otis. He also brings up the fact that Shane tried to kill Rick in the first season, "This world, what it is now, this is where you belong. And I may not have what it takes to last for long, but that's okay. 'Cause at least I can say when the world goes to shit, I didn't let it take me down with it" (2.7). Dale asks Shane to leave the group. Shane does not respond well to this assessment of his character and threatens Dale by saying, "Well maybe we oughta just think that through, say I'm the kind of man who would gun down his own best friend...what you'd think I'd do to some guy that I don't even like... when he starts throwing accusations my way what you think?" (2.7). Shane does not care what Dale thinks because he has already come to a conclusion that he voices later in the season, "You can't just be the good guy and expect to live. Not anymore" (2.10). Shane knows what he is doing is supposed to be wrong, but intellectualizes that it is okay because it is what you have to do to survive.

Shane quiets his Superego with this rationale and stops acting the way society says he should because the moral anxiety he feels is almost non-existent. Shane is walking a dangerous line with only his Id and Ego functioning at full potential. Shane's Thanatos and Eros instincts battle for the attention of the Ego's reality identification process. On one hand, Shane will do whatever it takes to survive; whether it is killing Otis or killing zombie version of Sophia when Rick could not bring himself to do it. Both these acts protect both himself and Carl, the only thing that makes Shane feel good anymore. On the other hand, Shane's Thanatos instincts are causing him to make extremely risky decisions in his dealings with the people on Hershel's farm. When Shane goes to get a gun for protection even though Hershel refuses to have guns on his property, Dale threatens to shoot Shane if he does not leave the guns alone. Shane just says "Dale, shut up. Just shut up and give me the guns." To which Dale replies, "Am I gonna have to shoot you? Do I have to kill you? Is that what it's gonna take?" Shane responds "Eh. Yeah. That's what it's gonna take" (2.5). Shane is becoming reckless and will do what he wants regardless of the consequences.

The tension between Shane and Rick comes to a peak during Season Two when they discover Lori is pregnant. They do not know if the baby is Rick's or Shane's. Shane is convinced it is his. Since he already believes Rick is an unworthy father for his own child, Shane refuses to let Rick raise a child that could be his biologically. Shane lures Rick into the woods to kill him. Rick realizes what is happening and tries to appeal to Shane's Superego, "Are you going to kill me in cold blood, screw my wife, have my children, MY children call you daddy? I know you. That life won't be worth a damn. You won't be able to live with this." To this Shane responds that Lori and Carl will get over Rick and come back to him in the end once Rick is gone.

Shane's Id instincts are winning the moment. He wants Lori and Carl back. He wants control of the group back. He does not want to live in fear of castration. He does not want to feel anxiety over his feelings and choices. Shane's Ego identifies the only way to do this is to kill Rick. But Shane's Superego makes one final attempt. Shane is overcome with moral anxiety. Shane does not want to kill Rick without Rick understanding his reasoning and accepting his rationale. In this pinnacle moment, Shane's Superego causes him a twinge of moral anxiety over killing Rick. Shane feels the need to rationalize to himself and to Rick, the person whose morals he has based his own. He feels the need to convince Rick that what he is doing is right. Shane puts his gun away and screams at Rick to shoot him. If Rick is really the better man for Lori and Carl, Rick will shoot him. But Rick does not want to kill his best friend.

Shane's Ego tries to pacify the Superego by rationalizing that if Rick does not kill Shane, then Shane is right in assuming that he is better for Lori and Carl, and therefore justified in killing Rick; "Even right here and right now you ain't gonna fight for her? I am a better father than you, Rick. I am better for Lori than you, man. Because I am a better man than you, Rick. Because I will be here. I will fight for her. But you came back and just destroyed everything. Raise your gun, Rick." (2.13). When Rick refuses, Shane moves in for the kill.

But one last plea from Rick makes Shane's Superego stay his hand. Rick begs; "There is still a way back from this. Nothing has happened here. We are going to lay down our guns and walk back to the farm. Back to Lori and Carl. And put this all behind us" (2.13). A combination of Shane's Id's desire for the comfort of Lori and Carl, and Shane's Superego providing too much moral anxiety causes Shane to lower his gun and fall into Rick's waiting arms desperate for comfort and forgiveness to ease his anxiety. In the very same moment that Shane decides not to kill Rick, Rick stabs Shane in the heart. Shane dies in that field as Rick yells at him, "You made me do this. YOU brought this on yourself! Why? YOU made me do this!" (2.13). In the end, Shane's Superego would not allow him kill his best friend and mentor.

Shane is a perfect example of Freudian Theory. Over the two seasons of The Walking Dead, the viewers see a first hand account of Shane's Id and Superego fighting for attention with his Ego. It is clear that this has been a life long battle for Shane, starting in childhood. It followed him into the Phallic Stage where he had a brief fixation because of a complicated relationship with his father that prevented his Superego from fully developing. But in high school, with the help of Rick, Shane was able to overcome his Oedipus complex and complete the development of his Superego. This allowed his Ego to identify ways to funnel his socially unacceptable Id impulses into socially acceptable activities; like football and police work. If the Zombie Apocalypse never happened, Shane could have lived to a ripe old age, happy and copasetic with society. His Superego would have continued to use societal norms and consequences to cause anxiety over the choices the Ego tried to make to satisfy the Id. The Ego would have to satisfy both parties. When society was functioning pre-apocalypse, his Superego generally had the final say because the consequences of giving into the Id were too great.

But the Zombies did happen. The rules changed. As the show progressed, Shane regressed back to the Phallic Stage as a coping mechanism. Society became a distant memory. The Superego lost its pull as Shane realized he could get away with more and more without the normal consequences. However, even at that point, Shane's Ego could not convince the Superego to allow it to kill Rick. But that changed after his instant decision to kill Otis. Shane's Ego realized it could kill and get away with it. The Ego decided to finally provide the Id the relief it had been wanting by getting rid of Rick. But in that final moment, the audience sees in Shane's eyes that the Superego that Rick helped Shane build and maintain for all those years, while weak, was still strong enough to conquer the Id impulses, saving what was left of Shane's humanity. Sadly it is too late to save Shane. But Shane died with the comfort of knowing he could not kill his own best friend in cold blood.


End file.
